The UK label Hyperion, recently acquired by Universal Music, has announced it will make its library of more than 2000 recordings available to digital streaming platforms, with 200 albums available immediately. The remainder are expected to be streaming from early 2024.

In a website post, a label spokesperson said: “Having resisted the medium for many years, we have decided the time is finally right, giving our esteemed artists the increased visibility they so deserve, and allowing the riches of our catalogue to be discovered by a new generation.”

Since it was founded in 1980 by the late Ted Perry, Hyperion has demonstrated an almost pathological desire to avoid the mainstream. The label’s revelatory 1981 recording of music by medieval composer Hildegard von Bingen – A Feather on the Breath of God, sung by Gothic voices and an ethereal Emma Kirkby – demonstrated early on that musical byways could also be hits.

Up until its acquisition by Universal, Hyperion was regarded as an artist-driven bastion of independence. Notable long-term stablemates include Stephen Hough, Angela Hewitt, Steven Isserlis, Alina Ibragimova, Steven Osborne, Marc-André Hamelin, Mahan Esfahani, Garrick Ohlsson and Leslie Howard, as well as ensembles such as the Goldner String Quartet, the...